This was sent to us via email by a reader with write up and link of the source: Moral story of coffee, carrots and egg. We share it with you.

Coffee, Carrots Or Egg: Moral Story

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as when one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.

She let them sit and boil; without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.”

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?”

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. “Which are you?” she asked her daughter.

When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level?

How do you handle adversity?
Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

As Thanksgiving comes around the corner, we often think of giving thanks. (And maybe buying Christmas gifts too!) However, if we thought of giving and sharing throughout the year, it would make a world wonderful and friendliest place to live. Don’t you think?

Quotes About Giving

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
— Maya Angelou

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.
— Elizabeth Asquith Bibesco

Generosity consists not the sum given, but the manner in which it is bestowed.
— Author Unknown

In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.
— Flora Edwards

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.
— Mother Teresa

There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity.
— Nathaniel Branden

The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not ‘to have and to hold’ but ‘to give and serve.”
— Sir Wilfred T. Grinfell

Only a powerful soul can offer love. Only a powerful soul can afford to be humble. If we are weak, then we become selfish. If we are empty, we take; but if we are filled, we automatically give to all. That is our nature.
– Dadi Prakashmani

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.
— Robert A. Heinlein

Whatever you spend is gone. What you keep, someone else gets. What you give is yours forever.
— Dr. Wil Rose

There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life — happiness, freedom, and peace of mind — are always attained by giving them to someone else.
— Peyton Conway March

To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it.
— Benjamin Franklin

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
— Winston Churchill

The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.
— Lao Tzu

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.
— Arthur Ashe

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own.
— Disraeli

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.
— Zig Ziglar

At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was naked and you clothed me, I was homeless and you took me in.’ Hungry not only for bread — but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing — but naked for human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks — but homeless because of rejection.
— Mother Teresa

Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving, I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. I experience myself as overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous. Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness.
— Erich Fromm

This was submitted by a reader with source link, Think before you Judge. It is a great site where they write many great moral and inspirational story.

Doctor’s Dilemma: Before you Judge Moral Story

A doctor entered the hospital in hurry after being called in for an urgent surgery. He answered the call asap, changed his clothes and went directly to the surgery block. He found the boy’s father pacing in the hall waiting for the doctor.

On seeing him, the father yelled, “Why did you take all this time to come? Don’t you know that my son’s life is in danger? Don’t you have any sense of responsibility?”

The doctor smiled and said, “I am sorry, I wasn’t in the hospital and I came as fast as I could after receiving the call and now, I wish you’d calm down so that I can do my work”.

“Calm down?! What if your son was in this room right now, would you calm down? If your own son dies while waiting for doctor than what will you do??” said the father angrily. The doctor smiled again and replied, “We will do our best by God’s grace and you should also pray for your son’s healthy life”.

“Giving advises when we’re not concerned is so easy” Murmured the father.

The surgery took some hours after which the doctor went out happy, “Thank goodness! your son is saved!” And without waiting for the father’s reply he carried on his way running by saying, “If you have any questions, ask the nurse”.

“Why is he so arrogant? He couldn’t wait some minutes so that I ask about my son’s state” Commented the father when seeing the nurse minutes after the doctor left. The nurse answered, tears coming down her face, “His son died yesterday in a road accident, he was at the burial when we called him for your son’s surgery. And now that he saved your son’s life, he left running to finish his son’s burial.”

We all can use and need humor and laughter in our lives. Here are some of the silliest and funny quotes that make you chuckle or smile. We all have a tough days here and there, and these quotes are for those rainy day when we can use little bit of help to make us smile at silliness of the quotes.

Silly Quotes:

Dear Math, please grow up and solve your own problems, I’m tired of solving them for you. -Unknown

They say that love is more important than money, but have you ever tried to pay your bills with a hug? – Unknown

The broccoli says ‘I look like a small tree’, the mushroom says ‘I look like an umbrella’, the walnut says ‘I look like a brain’, and the banana says ‘Can we please change the subject?’ – Unknown

Girls are like phones. We love to be held and talked to, but if you press the wrong button you’ll be disconnected! -Unknown

“Girls are like pianos. When they’re not upright, they’re grand.”- Benny Hill

“A friend is someone who’s there when he needs you”- Unknown

“Committee – a group of men who keep minutes and waste hours.” – M. Berle

Love could be many things to different people. Sometimes it is hard to describe the feeling you feel, when you are in love first time. We all need it, crave it and deserve love from family and friends.

It will not matter, whether you’re still finding true love, in love or want to know more about love, your search is made sweeter with these love quotations. You can use them in your Valentine’s Day cards, emails, letters or scrapbooks to express your love to the love of your life.

Sweetest Love Quotes For You:

All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.
— Leo Tolstoy

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it. . . . It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
— Erica Jong

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet…
— Plato

Dance as though no one is watching you. Love as though you have never been hurt before. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though you are immortal.
— Author Unknown

I am so glad that you are here… It helps me realize how beautiful my world is.
— Goethe

Above all things I believe in love. Love is like oxygen. Love is a many-splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love!
— From the movie Moulin Rouge

Do you love me because I’m beautiful, or am I beautiful because you love me?
— Oscar Hammerstein

If I could give you one gift, I would give you the ability to see yourself as I see you, so you could see how truly special you are.
— Author Unknown

I believe in a kind of love that brings sailors home from the sea. Made up of seconds and years and the nospace between hands on skin. I cannot believe how much goes on. I can’t even cut out enough red hearts to keep up.
— Sarah Mimnaugh

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin Into his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
— Emily Dickinson

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A smile is the lighting system of the face, the cooling system of the head and the heating system of the heart.
— Author Unknown

Falling in love with someone isn’t always going to be easy… Anger… tears… laughter.. It’s when you want to be together despite it all. That’s when you truly love another. I’m sure of it.
— Author Unknown

Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.
— Elbert Hubbard

In love, there is always one who kisses & one who offers the cheek.
— French proverb

Men always want to be a woman’s first love. Women have a more subtle instinct: What they like is to be a man’s last romance.
— Oscar Wilde

Love is like fever; it comes and goes without the will having any part in the process.
— Henry Beyle Stendahl

Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.
— Erich Fromm

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
— Robert A Heinlein

Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much perfoms much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.
— Vincent Van Gogh

See there’s this place in me where your fingerprints still rest, your kisses still linger, and your whispers softly echo. It’s the place where a part of you will forever be a part of me.
— Gretchen Kemp

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
— Thomas Merton

The word love can be explained in thousands of ways, but the only word that comes to my mind is you.
— Author Unknown

Wisdom is something we only achieve with experience and age. Lucky for us, there are many wise men and women that came before us so we can listen and be inspire from them. Here are some meaningful and uplifting Wisdom Quotes.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
— Helen Keller

Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.
— Grace Hansen

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.
— Robert Louis Stevenson

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
— Lady Dorothy Nevill

Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it with use.
— Ruth Gordon

The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers, and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
— Goethe

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
— Fredrick Koeing

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding.
— Thich Nhat Hahn

At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.
— Barbara Bush

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.
— Groucho Marx

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love, but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday.
–Kahlil Gibran

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.
— Dalai Lama

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.
— Dale Carnegie

Here is a reader submitted inspiring story about Motivational speaker and $20 bill and how it relates to human being.

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked. “Who would like this $20 bill?”

Hands started going up. He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you – but first, let me do this.”

He proceeded to crumple the 20 dollar note up. He then asked. “Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air.

“Well,” he replied, “what if I do this?” He dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. “Now, who still wants it?”

Still the hands went into the air.

“My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless; but no matter what happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who love you. The worth of our lives comes, not in what we do or who we know, but by …WHO WE ARE.

This story was submitted by a reader Tara Lee, she is not the author but sharing a inspiring story that was shared by her friend via email group.

Junior high school students in Chicago were studying the Seven Wonders of the World. At the end of the lesson, the students were asked to list what they considered to be the Seven Wonders of the World. Though there was some disagreement, the following received the most votes:

1. Egypt’s Great Pyramids
2. The Taj Mahal in India
3. The Grand Canyon in Arizona
4. The Panama Canal
5. The Empire State Building
6. St. Peter’s Basilica
7. China’s Great Wall

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student, a quiet girl, hadn’t turned in her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The quiet girl replied, “Yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there were so many.” The teacher said, “Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.”

The girl hesitated, then read, “I think the Seven Wonders of the World are:

1. to touch…
2. to taste…
3. to see…
4. to hear… (She hesitated a little, and then added…)
5. to feel…
6. to laugh…
7. and to love.

The room was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop.

May this story serve as a gentle reminder to all of us that the things we overlook as simple and ordinary are often the most wonderful – and we don’t have to travel anywhere special to experience them. Enjoy your gifts!

The House of 1000 Mirrors Japanese Folktale

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was a place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the house, he thought to himself, “This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often.”

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, “That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again.”

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

An internationally known and respected writer, poet and educator, Maya Angelou has authored such well-known titles as “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Gather Together in My Name.” She has produced and starred in several plays and authored the musical score and screenplay for the film Georgia, Georgia. She has been the recipient of many awards, including the Golden Eagle Award. Here are some of her famous motivational quotes to inspire you today.

Maya Angelou Quotes

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

I don’t know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, ‘well, if I’d known better I’d have done better,’ that’s all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then you say to yourself, ‘I’m sorry.’ If we all hold on to the mistake, we can’t see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can’t see what we’re capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that’s rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

I can be changed by what happens to me. but I refuse to be reduced by it.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope.

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.